


Keep My Number For A Rainy Day

by SilverMiko



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-05
Updated: 2014-04-17
Packaged: 2018-01-14 14:41:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1270267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverMiko/pseuds/SilverMiko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Season 5 AU-ish. Enzo has escaped Wes and the Travelers, and is staying with the Salvatores. Caroline is tired of her flailing love life and just wants to pass her college history class. A brief but banter-filled meeting and a foot stomp later, Enzo is intrigued by the young, blonde vampire who wears her bruised heart on her sleeve, and Caroline is annoyed but can't help the way Enzo gets under her skin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Cool Guys Like You

Title: Keep My Number For a Rainy Day  
Author: Silver Miko  
Rating: M  
Pairing: Enzo/Caroline

Notes: I blame the arm wrestling behind-the-scenes photo. Sorry, not sorry.

***

 

Chapter 1: Cool Guys Like You

With her usual force and lack of preamble, Caroline charged through the door of the Salvatore manor and strode purposely to the living room. Her aim was seated at the large armchair facing the empty fireplace, a bourbon shooter in hand.  
“Stefan, I need your help!”  
There was a pause, and the reply was not the voice she was used to, but a clipped accent.  
“Sorry, love, Stefan’s not in right now.”  
The man that was not Stefan stood up and turned to face her, and Caroline did her best to not appear flustered.  
He was handsome; olive skinned and dark hair and eyes the warm, rich color of a cup of coffee. A very good cup of coffee. She wasn’t sure, but his accent sounded either British or Australian, perhaps.   
“Oh, well, then never mind I guess. Sorry, I thought for a moment you were him and…who are you, anyway?”  
Over the years it had grown less strange to find, well, strangers at the Salvatore household, but usually Damon or Stefan were around to explain.  
“The name’s Lorenzo, love, but my friends call me…”  
“Enzo,” she murmured, her defenses going up.  
She had heard his names on the lips of her friends, like a cautionary tale. One of the vampires to endure the Augustine experiments for a long time that was a friend of Damon’s. It was odd for her to think of Damon having any friends that weren’t the handful left in Mystic Falls, and even that list, to her, was short save of her mother (which still puzzled her), Stefan naturally, Jeremy sometimes depending, and even more of a wildcard these days, Elena. Truthfully, Damon hadn’t seemed to have any real, solid friends since Ric…but she didn’t dwell on that.   
From what she knew, Enzo himself was a loose canon, and had been playing devil on Damon’s already bad shoulders these days.   
“Ah, so you’ve heard of me then? Can’t say that pleasure is reciprocated. And just who would you be? I assume by your lack of grace or knocking you’re friends with Stefan?”  
“Forbes, Caroline Forbes. Where’s Stefan?”  
“Forbes? Any relation to a Margaret Forbes?”  
Caroline raised an eyebrow.  
“Grand-aunt. Why?”  
Enzo smiled, and shook his head.  
“Oh, nothing. If you’re looking for the intrusive Stefan, he’s gone off to talk to Damon about his girl. Their girl. Whoever she decides she’s with today.”  
Defensiveness turned to annoyance, and Caroline put her hands on her hips.  
“That girl happens to be my best friend, who, I’m sorry, was kind of possessed by the soul of a slutty, evil vampire doppelgänger, the one that actually killed me by the way, so excuse her if she seems a little inconsistent. Not that she needs to be defended to you.”  
Enzo held up his hands in a pacifying gesture.  
“Easy love, no need to get defensive. I’m sure Miss Gilbert is a fine girl despite her contentious parentage.”  
Somehow it was hard to think of Mr. Gilbert, who had been almost a second father to her when her own left town, as a torturer and “mad scientist” part of that Augustine group. From what Elena had mentioned, Enzo was one of Mr. Gilbert’s subjects at one point. For all she knew, while he was checking her tonsils or bandaging scrapes at his clinic, the vampire before her was down in the basement facing much worse.   
She tried not to think of that, she didn’t want to feel sympathy for the actually fairly smug man before her, even though a small amount was there. She needed to leave. The last thing she needed was any more banter with crazy yet kind of hot looking vampires.   
“I’m not your ‘love’, and this conversation is over. I’d say it was a pleasure but I’m trying this being honest thing.”  
She turned on her heels, poised to leave, and he chuckled, speeding to stand in front her, blocking her path.  
“Easy there, Caroline was it? No need to be rude.”  
Her eyes narrowed and she knew her face was probably scrunching up unattractively, but she didn’t care.  
“You know what I need, love?” she said, practically spitting out that last word, “Cool guys like you out of my life.”  
She stomped on his foot hard and walked away, slamming the front door behind her.  
Tyler, Klaus, Jesse…she was tired of most of the men in her life who disappointed her or she disappointed or who ended up dead or were just plain bad for her. As she got into her car and drove off, she exhaled loudly.  
“I don’t care if he’s attractive, and weirdly flirty, and has that accent that does weird things to a girl. He is bad news, Caroline, an unstable vamp with poor choices in besties. Avoid, Forbes, avoid!”  
She turned on the radio, trying to distract herself with music, but as she drove she rolled her eyes at herself and hit the steering wheel with a hand.  
“Did I really quite Heathers of all things? Goddddddddd…”

***

 

Enzo shook out his foot, surprised at how strong the young, blonde vampire was. His past few months had certainly been, for lack of a better term, colorful. Seventy years in that Whitmore-managed hell, freed, revenge on Damon, making up with Damon, a few good kills, then the bad business with the Ripper virus, then Dr. Wes and those damn Travellers taking him away again, only to yet again be freed, thanks to the Salvatore brothers. Despite his own problems of wanting to basically feed off and kill his own kind, Damon somehow convinced his do-gooder brother that Enzo was worth saving.  
That amused him greatly. Truthfully, had Stefan met him sixty years ago, when Damon had, the younger Salvatore would have probably liked him. He was different then, still clinging on to some kind of hope, still clinging on to more of his humanity, but seventy years of torture had a way of changing one’s perspective for the worst.  
Reluctantly, Stefan was letting Enzo stay at their house until the further problem of Damon’s new dietary needs was sorted. He could have left, high tailed it to some better location, but perhaps a lingering sentimentality in him didn’t feel right about leaving before Damon was settled. In truth, despite the dicey history, Damon was also the last real friend he’d had, and even though he’d been angry he wondered lately if he had been in Damon’s shoes that night, at the party, would he have acted differently in those odds? He wanted to think yes, but in truth, he couldn’t know for sure. He did know that he’d never turn his humanity off, though. Those feelings, even heightened, were one of the few things he refused to give up. The agony, happiness, despair; sharp, but he’d cling to them as long as he could. Now, he felt halfway between his old self and bitter vampire out for revenge, a compass arrow stuck in the middle in need of a new direction. He had been brooding on that very subject when the blonde storm barged in, talking a mile a minute and going through several emotions in span of a hummingbird flitting its wings.  
He saw them all—her confusion that he wasn’t Stefan, curiosity, defensiveness and wariness when he said his name, a slight hint of contempt and judgment, caution, then annoyance, boldness, and then, oddest of all, the fight or flight she showed at the end of her little confrontation, in which she declared not needing cool guys like him in her life. A cool guy, he was, then? She had some good taste then, or awful considering the comment. The exasperation made him assume she had some bad luck in that department, perhaps someone or many someones broke her heart. And then she kicked him and stormed off, not afraid he’d rip her head off for it.   
In the span of five minutes he had a good read on Caroline Forbes, a vampire with a likely bruised heart clearly on her sleeve for the world to see. Maggie’s grand-niece. There was similarity in their bone structure and coloring, but that’s where common traits ended. Maggie had been sweet, a bit timid, and reserved. Caroline, clearly, was not timid or reserved, but boisterous and demanding. He wasn’t sure why he was even comparing the two in his mind, though he hated to admit that Maggie’s face these days was fading in his mind, and sometimes he had to struggle to put together her features correctly, a photo out of focus. He hadn’t really given much thought about a woman since her, though, in any way, and was surprised he’d bother to give any deeper thought to or read Caroline as fully as he had. She’d probably avoid him now anyway, but he would find it interesting if they crossed paths again, because she seemed like an interesting person in general.   
And oddly enough, he liked her brass at ultimately not being afraid of him, even if it was stupid of her.

***

“There you are!”   
Caroline slid into the booth at the Grill across from Stefan, grabbing a French fry off his plate.  
“Caroline, hello to you too.”  
“Yea yea, sorry, hi Stefan, how are you today? I need your help.”  
“Oh? Is this a supernatural problem, personal…”  
“Historical.”  
“Well, that’s not what I expected to be honest, but go on.”  
“I don’t know why I thought it was a good idea at the time, but I registered for Europe: Medieval to Modern Times to fill a humanitarian credit and my professor is insane! He’s like eighty-thousand years old and expects us to process way too much history in the shortest time span and I can’t really afford to flunk the class or withdraw this late in the semester so…”  
“So, you want me to tutor you?”  
“Well duh, I still remember you calling out our history teachers in high school. Pleaaaase, Stefan, I’ll be in your debt and owe you one.”  
He took a slurp of his soda, and smiled.  
“Okay, I’ll help. Our library at home has a lot of books that can help.”  
Caroline scrunched up her face.  
“About that, I was just there looking for you and had a run with the mysterious Enzo. We need to talk about the strays you bring home.”  
“Sorry about that, he needed a place to go and Damon made a good case for him, as weird as that sounds.”  
“Well of course he’d want his partner in literal crime around!”  
“Care…Enzo isn’t a total lost cause. We’ve all done some pretty bad things we aren’t proud of, and considering what he went through…I can relate. I knew what it was like to spend three months locked in a safe in the bottom of a quarry, drowning constantly, and what state that left me in. Imagine decades of that kind of torture.”  
Caroline bit her lip, and shoved another fry in her mouth.  
“Ugh, you really are St. Stefan too much at times. But I guess you have a point.”  
“Well you’re still standing, so I assume he didn’t attack you.”  
“Uhhhh no. Kinda the other way around….”  
Stefan sighed, and Caroline’s shoulders tensed like a coil ready to strike as she launched into explaining her earlier encounter.

Across the Grill, Enzo walked in and went straight for the bar where Damon sat, a neat row of tequila shots lined up. Enzo clapped a hand on Damon’s shoulder.  
“That bad or that good, mate?”  
“What this? For me, this is Tuesday. Though if you must know, I’m finding the alcohol keeps me just fuzzy enough to ignore wanting to rip your neck open and enjoy an Enzo buffet lunch.”  
Enzo signaled for the bartender to bring him the same, and sat on the stool next to Damon, the one he was apparently allowed to sit that wasn’t on the other side of Damon. He was oddly possessive of that particular stool.   
“Well then let’s not talk about your girl problems. Tell me, what do you know about that Caroline girl?”  
Damon leveled an incredulous gaze at him.  
“Blondie? Why the hell are you asking about her?”  
“She showed up at your house this morning, left quite an impression. I’m sure I have her heel mark dug nicely in my foot.”  
“Surprised you didn’t rip her head off.”  
“She’s…an interesting girl. Total open book, and I’m wondering if I read her right.”  
“How does one describe Caroline Forbes? Neurotic, control-freak, ex-cheerleader, judgmental, loud, dubious taste in men, I should know, Elena’s best friend and has quite the hate-on for me, though I probably deserve it.”  
“So not friends, then?”  
“Depends on the day or situation. These kids rattle about that I’m big, bad Damon but I’m the first they run to for a plan or when someone needs to get their hands dirty. My fault for deciding at some point I’d keep an eye on them, for all the good it does me. But again, she’s Elena’s best friend.”  
“So what did you do to piss her off aside from your natural charm and charisma?”  
Damon sighed, downing another shot.  
“When she was human, and my humanity was shut off, I came to town set on wreaking some havoc in Stefan’s life while I tried to free Katherine, assuming that bitch was still where she was supposed to be. Caroline was there, useful and flirty, and I took advantage. I slept with her and compelled her and kept the relationship up for a while, fed off her, acting as horrible as I am when I turn it off. Then things changed and I switched back on, but doesn’t change the fact I was a dick to her and she has a long memory.”  
“Didn’t you ever apologize?”  
“Enzo, if I started to apologize for every bad thing I did to a person I’d have no free time. Besides, not sure it would have ever done any good. Like I said, I was horrible to her.”  
“It would have been a start.”  
The two looked over their shoulders to see Caroline standing behind them.  
“It’s not nice to eavesdrop, Blondie,” Damon said, setting his empty shot glass aside.  
“Kinda hard not to when you’re being chatty Kathies about me in the same room and I can hear you. One, yeah, Damon you were a dick and horrible but an apology would have been nice. Probably wouldn’t have gotten you far, I still think you’re kind of terrible, but you should have freaking apologized. And you,” she said, her scolding gaze swinging to Enzo, “You don’t get to ask around about me. You may find me interesting, but I’m not interested.”  
Enzo smirked, poising his shot glass to his lips.  
“Who said I was interested like that? A bit full of yourself to presume there, love,” he said, taking the shot.  
Caroline leaned in closer to him, smiling sweetly.  
“Because people like you don’t ask about people like me unless they’re interested like that.”  
“Ah, I see, you mean cool guys like me, that you need out of your life?”  
Damon practically spat the glass Scotch he had just ordered.  
“You quoted Heathers at him? Really??”  
Caroline rolled her eyes, and practically shook with anger.  
“I should have kicked you in the balls instead,” she whispered viciously, and stormed away, grabbing her purse as she walked by Stefan’s booth where she left it, and out of the Grill. Stefan watched her go, and glanced back at them annoyed.  
“Quite the ladies man, Enzo. Though I think you just signed Stefan’s fate to have to hear her bitch about you for the next decade.”  
“I’m dripping with concern, mate.”

***

Caroline tapped her pencil viciously against the half marked page of her notebook, mouth pursed tightly and eyes burning on the page, but not really reading it. Bonnie looked up from her book, staring across their dorm room.  
Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap!  
“Caroline, if you’re trying to stake that notebook, you need to try harder. What’s wrong?”   
“Nothing, it’s dumb and I just,” she paused and made an annoyed grumble, tossing the pencil down, “Something from when I went home yesterday to ask for Stefan’s help with history.”  
“You did look a little mad when you got in last night, was it something with Tyler?”  
“What? No, I haven’t seen him in a while. Things are still weird between us.”  
“Well, you did sleep with…”  
“Yes, I know, I did the dirty with Klaus, moving on, I came face to face with that…that Enzo!”  
Bonnie sat up, more alert.  
“Are you okay?”  
Caroline knew why Bonnie would instantly tense, not many weeks ago Enzo helped Damon hold Jeremy hostage in return for witchy help from Bonnie. They threatened to kill Jeremy, and no one wanted that, again.   
“Oh, I’m fine but let me tell you that is one of the cockiest vampires I’ve ever met and I thought Damon was full of himself. I went to ask Stefan for help but noooo, apparently they’re letting Enzo stay there and I’ve told Stefan he needs to watch it with the strays.”  
“There’s puppies then there’s traumatized, on the edge vampires.”  
“I know, right? So anyway, Stefan wasn’t home but Enzo was and at first I was alarmed because hello, crazy killer vampire with scores to settle, but then he opened his mouth more and I was just more annoyed. Calling me “love” and trying to be weird and all….with that accent and stuff.”  
“Say what?” Bonnie asked, clearly taken aback.  
“And then, when I find Stefan at the Grill and he agrees to help me and all is well, bam! Enzo is there talking to Damon and starts asking about me.”  
“Damon told you that?”  
Caroline shook her head.  
“No, I heard them. It’s amazing how often we forget about the super hearing thing. I mean mostly I just tune stuff out but I heard my name.”  
“So let me get this straight, Enzo…seventy years of medical experimented on Enzo, held Jeremy hostage Enzo, was asking Damon about you?”  
“Seriously, as if I don’t have enough problems.”  
“Care! This doesn’t worry you more in the least?”  
Caroline made a swatting motion.  
“Honestly? After the Klaus thing and past couple of months, this is child’s play. Besides, apparently he finds me interesting.”  
“What did Damon tell him?”  
“Oh the usual, I’m neurotic and controlling blah blah blah, but then the weird part happened. Damon admitted how badly he treated me when he first came to town and admitted he would have apologized if he thought it’d mean anything.”  
“I…wow, I don’t even know how I would have responded to that if I were you. That’s kind of big.”  
“How I responded was I marched over to them, called them a bunch of chatty Kathies, and told Enzo he doesn’t get to ask around about me. And that I wish I had kicked him in the balls and not the foot.”  
“Caroline Forbes! You did not!”  
“Which part? What I said or that I kicked him in the foot?”  
“Yes! Both. Seriously, he could have ripped off your head or worse.”  
“Not sure how it gets worse than that, and yea, I thought so too but he just let me walk away. It’s so weird, and he’s so smug and just arg!”  
Bonnie laughed softly, but then her face grew serious.  
“Care, I’ve known for a very long time, and I’ve seen you get this way before over a guy so please, please please take care with Enzo. You just met this guy and he’s already gotten under your skin.”  
“Ew, Bonnie, as if he…and I…ew just no!”  
“I don’t know, weirder things have happened. Literally.”  
“Don’t even think it, no more crazy hybrids, abandoning mad at me hybrids, vampires, dead crushes, none of it. I. Am. Done. Down with love, done with this whole shebang. I’m going to focus on me, become an eternal spinster and maybe adopt some cats or something.”  
“And yet that image is more frightening than you and Enzo.”  
Caroline threw one of her throw pillows at Bonnie, and the subject was dropped.  
“Though you do know your Calculus homework isn’t going to do itself,” Bonnie added.  
Caroline groaned again, and reached for her pencil to try and focus on math instead of a thinking of coffee-colored eyes.


	2. The Girl With the Blue Blue Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Damon is moping, Elena is moping, and Caroline and Enzo respectively aren't having it. A road trip, a trip out to the bar, and some conversation over drinks later, Caroline gets more chatty with Enzo than intended.

Title: Keep My Number For a Rainy Day  
Chapter 2: The Girl With the Blue Blue Heart  
Author: Silver Miko  
Rating: M

Notes: Run free, fandom muse! Inspire away!

 

***

 

“You know as much as I love a good drink, it’s eleven in the morning and you’re brooding far too much, mate.”  
Enzo, sprawled on the living room couch, looked over at Damon who stood at the fireplace mantle with whiskey number five in his hand.  
“It’s not brooding, it’s daytime drinking. Are you going to nag at me too? It’s what I keep Stefan around for.”  
“Look, not that I don’t love all this bonding time now that our tour de revenge is over, but it’s getting a little dull watching you sulk. You could just call her, you know.”  
“It’s complicated.”  
“Yes well, life is complicated. If it was easier people would drink less, case in point, you. I may be still getting a hang of things outside of a lab, but I can see plainly you really need to work on your habit of throwing away what little good things seem to come into your life.”  
He saw Damon’s free hand flex into a fist, and knew his friend was trying to keep his temper in check. And then Damon threw his glass into the fireplace.  
Well, I guess that’s a no to a temper check, Enzo thought.  
“Maybe I’m not supposed to have good things, I’m a bad person and I hurt people, have for a long time and look where it gets Elena!”  
“I hardly think you can take credit for your crazy ex deciding to use Traveler magic to wear your current girl like a suit and wreak havoc.”  
“But I could have…”  
“What? You could have what? Stop trying to control everything or take blame for everything, you can’t be that full of yourself, though I think you have a good dose of self-hatred you’re nursing more than a fine 1967 Scotch. I’ve said it before and it bears repeating, we aren’t as fragile as you think.”  
“No?” Damon snorted, slumping into the large armchair.  
“Starting to think perhaps that’s you, mate. Enough pouting, as pretty much you’re only friend, take my advice—sort yourself out. You’ve gotten some lead way on getting this Ripper virus somewhat in check, so why not go get your girl back?”  
Damon was silent for a moment.  
“And that’s your problem there too, not that I don’t love, what’d you call it? Our bonding time, but fact is I’m the only friend you really have. Maybe you need to spread your little vampy wings as well, since we’re having this lovely talk about sorting things out.”  
Enzo had no quick reply form at his lips. He hadn’t honestly given thought to much aside from killing Wes and the last of the Whitmores, at one point killing Damon, and then attempting not to be killed by Damon. Past the blood and torture and vengeance…he hadn’t thought that far. In truth, he was fairly sure he’d be gone for good by now, dead. Now, well, he had to think of what now.   
“Perhaps your right, mate, and what better way to start than taking you to go visit Elena and perhaps working my charms on her, platonic of course. Wouldn’t do you have your girl hate your best mate.”  
Damon rolled his eyes.  
“No, I know what its like to be on the end of that.”  
“Ah yes, Miss Forbes and her persistent dislike of you. I’ll do my best to make sure Elena isn’t plotting to have a curse put on me.”  
“No, that’s Bonnie you’d have to worry about, and she’s definitely not a fan of yours after the Jeremy thing.”  
“Baby steps, mate, baby steps.”  
Damon sighed, and stood up.  
“Fine, let’s go.”  
Just as the words left Damon’s mouth, Stefan walked into the room.  
“Go where?”  
Enzo turned and smiled at the younger Salvatore.  
“Damon’s had a sudden urge for higher learning.”  
“You’re going to see Elena,” Stefan said.  
“Yes, brother dear, so keep the peanut gallery comments to yourself,” Damon grumbled.  
“No comments, but I’m coming with you.”  
“Excellent, it’ll give us a chance to get to know each other better. Damon was just telling me I need to make more friends,” Enzo exclaimed facetiously, clapping a hand on Stefan’s shoulder, who was not amused.  
“I think it’ll take more than a car ride.”   
“Rome wasn’t built in a day, and besides, Damon here told me you also served in the war. There’s something in common, already.”  
“It’s going to be a loooong two hours,” Damon sighed.

***

Caroline looked over at Elena, whose nose was buried in a copy of Wuthering Heights. That wasn’t good, Bronte was serious business and Caroline knew Elena only dug out that book when she was in a bad mood or upset. Not surprising, consider the brunette spent weeks with her soul trapped who knows where while her doppelgänger and nemesis was walking around in her body, sabotaging her life more, including muddling things up even more in the already complicated problem of her and Damon.  
As much as she had reveled in Damon originally breaking up with Elena, and admittedly perhaps the Breakup Brunch was pushing a tad far, it was painfully obvious Elena was not happy. Not as happy as she had been the previous summer, not as happy with…  
“Okay, Elena, we need to talk.”  
“What?”  
Caroline groaned, slapping her hands on comforter.   
“As much as I hate to say this, believe me I do, I think you should talk to Damon.”  
“Damon? What…Caroline, why?”  
“Because you’ve been moping around here and yes, I know it’s a lot because of what happened to you, but you’ve brought out the Bronte and we both know that’s not good.”  
“Maybe I just wanted to read it again, it’s a classic.”  
“It’s depressing, is what it is, and don’t give me that. You’ve never just re-read that for fun. Last time you brought it out was when Stefan ran off with Klaus and turned his humanity off.”  
Elena threw her book down, crossing her arms.  
“I can’t just call Damon up on the phone like nothing happened. What am I supposed to even say? The last thing I remember is we were kind of broken up, and when he took it back I wasn’t me. Am I supposed to say sorry it wasn’t me, it wasn’t me who broke your heart and made you go off the deep end again? Aaron’s dead because of this whole mess, dead because Damon can’t keep himself from spiraling at his worst, and I should hate him for it and I do but…”  
“You still love him. Look, you know I’m not one to make excuses for Damon, and I’m not trying to, but maybe we need to stop pretending our hands aren’t as dirty. I mean, I’ve killed people, you have too, as much as I try hard not to dwell on it, we’re all…really morally grey and if there are things that help us keep the darkness at bay, we should hold onto it right? Is Damon a better person around you? Yes. Almost tolerable. And as much as I hate to say it, when you turned he was pretty much the only person who got you through it and made you come back to being the Elena I remember. Before everything bad really happened.”  
“Maybe that’s true, but it’s not an easy fix.”  
“I’m not saying it is, but talking is a step. Baby steps, Elena, one day at a time.”  
Elena chuckled, and the somber mood lifted some.  
“That’s AA, Care.”  
“It applies here too. Look, you and I both have had some bad luck with boys lately so I think let’s drop the Heathcliff and Catherine, get out of here, and get a drink or three.”  
Caroline watched Elena think about it, then smiled as Elena shook her head in that ‘I know this is probably a bad idea but what the hell!’ way she remembered fondly, first seeing it sophomore year when they raided her dad’s liquor cabinet for the first time.   
“Okay, why not. Besides, we probably should figure out where there is to hang around here outside of campus. I feel like we never go anywhere but where or back home.’  
“I don’t think we do, actually. First time for everything. Bonnie said she’d be back later after visiting her mom, I’ll leave her note.”

***

“Oh Lord, music nowadays. Give me some good old jazz or that David Bowie chap,” Enzo complained, bored with the latest pop song on the radio that Stefan mentioned was a Katy Perry or something.  
“How do you even know about Bowie? Weren’t you basically locked up for seventy years?”  
“Funny thing about that, some of the Whitmores and your girlfriend’s father had a thing about listening to music while they work. Dr. Gilbert even played movies sometimes, I guess perhaps it helped take his mind off the atrocities he inflicted on me. While my pop culture knowledge of the world is spotty at best, I have been caught up on some things.”  
“Oh good, you’re not totally hopeless. Just please tell me you aren’t into Bon Jovi like Stefan here.”  
“Hey, Bon Jovi is a great band. Not all of us were in England partying with Depeche Mode in the 80s.”  
“Are you two going to spend the remaining hour squabbling over which of your bands is better because this is not what I meant when I said we’d get to know each other better.”  
“Sorry Enzo, what would you like to talk about?” Stefan ground out, annoyed.  
“Anything else that won’t end up with Damon snapping mid-argument and having a two-course vampire dinner out of us, thanks. I suppose since she’s the point of the trip, tell me more about the enchanting Miss Elena. She must be special to make you such a mess, Damon.”  
“She is,” Stefan replied, quietly.  
“You too? This seems like the makings of quite a story. So, who should start? Perhaps you Stefan, since you met her first.”  
“I don’…”  
“Actually, I technically met her first. I just compelled her at the time to forget,” Damon said from the driver’s seat.  
“You did what? Why didn’t you tell me that?” Stefan asked, surprised. He always thought he was first to meet and speak with Elena, and that Damon blew into town later on.  
“Oh I was in town longer than you thought I was, and besides, at first I thought she was Katherine, she was walking down the road from some high school bonfire, we had a chat, and I compelled her to forget, and maybe I also suggested she go for what she wants in life more or less.”  
“It doesn’t sound like more or less. So you didn’t attack her and compelling her to think of something nice when your humanity was off?”  
“Look Stefan, what can I say, you know the effect she has. Anyway, you dated her first, you start.”  
Enzo found the exchange more interesting than he let on. He knew Stefan and Damon’s relationship was complicated, he remembered Damon talking about Stefan and their history back in the 50s when their cells were next to each other. Apparently Elena Gilbert made it even weirder, and had been some bad blood between them, but they seemed to be over it. As he listened to Stefan blather on about what sounded like a boring high school relationship that should have ended sooner than it did, and both share their colorful perspective on Damon and Elena’s relationship, Enzo couldn’t help but wonder.  
“Is there something about doppelgängers that make them the Golden Apple or something? So much fuss over one girl, well, many versions of her it seems between her and Katherine.”  
“You just don’t know this one girl very well, she has a way of getting in and you either want to shake her or hug her and keep her safe,” Stefan commented, not like a man still in love, Enzo noted, but someone reflecting on a friend who was once a lover.  
“Or you don’t know whether to toss her in a lake or take an arrow for her, spoilers, been there and done that. Same weekend actually.”  
Despite the fact they were talking about Elena, and her qualities of being both frustrating and yet worth keeping close, Enzo couldn’t help but think of another vampire, with blonde hair and blue eyes.

***

“I think I give up on men. No, I’m sure. My name is Caroline Forbes and I resign myself to being a cat lady forever.”  
Elena chuckled, spitting out some of her beer.  
“Careful, for us that’s a lot longer than most people exaggerate.”  
Caroline’s shoulders slumped, and she looked at her near empty beer bottle. Her mood shifted and only one thing was in order right now. Vodka. Lots of it. She flagged the bartender for a vodka martini up, and fiddled with the worn Coors Light coaster before her.  
“So things with Tyler still not good?”  
“They’re lukewarm at best, but he’s still so mad at me. Can’t say I blame him. I screwed up, and him leaving like that just, arg, put me in a weird place.”  
“It’s hard when they turn up out of the blue like that, trust me, I know.”  
As Elena finished her sentence and Caroline looked around, some familiar faces caught her eye.  
“Speaking of.”  
Elena turned to glance over her shoulder, and Caroline watched as her friend’s mouth fell open as Damon approached.   
“Damon,” Elena said, her voice breathy and surprised.  
“Hi, can we talk?”  
“I…”  
“Yes, she can talk,” Caroline said, supplying an answer and nudging Elena off her bar stool.   
Damon shot her an appreciative look, as best as Damon could anyway, and Caroline nodded. He ushered Elena away, outside, and Caroline turned back to her martini, signally for the bartender. This sudden situation called her shots instead. She was nervous for her friend, and there would definitely be some dishing before bed.   
“Of all the gin joints in the world…”  
Caroline’s shoulders tensed as Enzo slid to sit in the barstool Elena had occupied, torn between punching him in his smug smile or, she didn’t know.  
“Don’t get cute with me. Not sure why you’re here too, not interested.”  
“Oh don’t be touchy, just giving Damon some moral support and a kick. It seems like you and I have aligned goals here. We want both our friends to sort out their mutual issue.”  
“We don’t have aligned anything, but my fist is about to align with your face if you don’t scootaloo.”  
“Are you always this violent? Stefan led me to believe you were much nicer a person.”  
“Stefan, what? Why would he tell you anything about me?”  
“He came on this lovely road trip with us, we chatted, we made ‘friendlies’ as the kids these days say, and when they were filling me on the wondrous Elena Gilbert, you came up. He seems to think highly of you, Stefan that is. Have you two ever, well, you know?”  
Caroline downed a vodka shot, wincing at the crisp burn.  
“No, God no! I may have been interested in him way back when he was the new kid at school but he’s the only guy I know aside from Jeremy I haven’t had some ridiculous sort of complications with, and I’d prefer it stays that way. The last thing I need to do is screw up things with someone who’s pretty much my best guy friend. Ugh, why am I even justifying this to you? I told you, stop asking about me!”  
“Easy, love, just killing time until Damon gets back. I could be out and about looking for a meal if you’d prefer.”  
“If you’re going to put it like that, fine, stay. But mind your own business!”  
“You really aren’t afraid of me one bit, are you?”  
Caroline tossed a glance at him, his tight jeans, black tee shirt, hipster scarf that made her wonder where he picked up the style so fast, and the way he looked at her. Not judgingly, just curious. For all the bad things she’d heard of him, it surprised even her that she wasn’t scared. “I was used as a salad bar and attacked and compelled by Damon, watched my best friend’s life fall apart, was killed, turned, and threatened by Katherine Pierce to betray my friends and help her, I was a confused new vamp without help and killed people which I hate, my mother tried to kill me, my father tried to torture me and condition me to be less a vampire, oh, and he was turned against his well and killed himself, I’ve watched friends die, watched my boyfriend be turned into a hybrid to serve Klaus, watched more people I care about die, watched my boyfriend leave me over and over until I couldn’t take, and because I wasn’t enough in a weird place in life, I slept with Klaus, who killed people I cared about and killed Tyler’s mom because that’s my life, and most all of this before I was eighteen so please, tell me, mate, why would I be afraid of you?”  
Caroline’s breathing was deep and rough; she didn’t know how much of that she had been holding in until it burst open like the dam outside of town during a long week of rain. Enzo seemed stunned at her outburst at first.  
“I…think you’re going to need a lot more than a shot glass.”

Several bottles later, the more she drank the more she vented and even though it was to Enzo, who just listened though chimed in here and there with a flippant comment, it felt good. For once, it all came out, all of it, all of the poison.  
“I don’t even know why I did what I did with Klaus. I must be a masochist or just good at screwing up my life. Tyler is still barely cordial with me, and I don’t know why that bothers me, we broke up but I always thought we’d still be friends. Men are too much drama. Cats, cats I say, that’s the life for me.”  
“For what it’s worth, it sounds like you let your hair down so to speak, and gave into an impulse where this Klaus fellow is concerned. We’re vampires and life is very long for us, there’s bound to be interesting moments in between, otherwise what’s the point?”  
“Easy for you to say, you’re like, what? At least ninety something years or more older than me?”  
“Ouch, hitting me in my vanity. Older than that, we’ll say.”  
“Also, it’s different for guys. You’re all just, so…so…boys! You want things we can’t give, take off when we want to give, and what are we left with? Broken hearts and tree bark scratches on our backs.”  
Enzo just stared at her, less of a smirk on his lips and more of a softer smile. Caroline didn’t like the way it made her stomach wobble. Or maybe that was the vodka.  
“I think I’m cut off for the night. I need to go back to my room. And no, you aren’t walking me home.”  
“I didn’t ask.”  
“No, but you would have if I didn’t cut you off at the pass.”  
“Ah, yes, now it’s you reading me like a book, eh? I read you the first time we met, you know, Caroline Forbes, with her bruised heart for the entire world to see.”  
Her eyebrows furrowed, and she was about to make a sharp retort when he put a finger on her lips.  
“Let me finish. It’s possible I didn’t read enough chapters, though. You say your life is screwed up and wallow in it, but I can that most people who have gone through what you have in such a short time wouldn’t take it as well or manage to get on with their lives like you have. I should know, better than most. And that’s about enough sentimentality from me for one night. Get off with you, girl with the blue blue heart.”  
Caroline grabbed her purse, poised to leave, but paused.  
“This doesn’t change anything, you know. Still not interested.”  
She walked off, her stride a bit wobbly, and Enzo watched her go.  
“Touche for now, love, for now.”


	3. Good, Bad, I'm The Guy With the Chekov's Gun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Caroline and Enzo go to Atlanta to seek out Stefan's last remaining doppleganger, and the two vampires debate on moral grounds.

Caroline should have known it wouldn't be an easy mission; the moment she laid eyes on Tom Avery, who looked so much like her friend, she knew she probably couldn't go through with it. He was a good man from what little intel she had, and he was so damn grateful to have been saved from that witch. How could she do it? But she had to, to save Stefan, the guy she did know. This doppleganger wasn't him, he was a stranger with a familiar face. And then, also, there was Enzo to consider. Who had felt the need to  _prepare_ her, as if she was a soldier. The war was over, he needed to get to memo.

Still, she supposed in some twisted way Enzo was almost being kind to her. She had said it herself, she was a good vampire. Not a murderous bad one. Though, the honest part of herself whispered from the shadows of her mind that wasn't exactly the truth- she had murdered; to feed, in frenzy, to save her friend. She tried to forget, and maybe that's why she was so insistent of being good, as if basking in that whiteness would strip her clean of her past actions. The truth was, her declaration of being good to Enzo felt more like her convincing herself. Maybe that's what bristled her about Enzo, he didn't pretend or deny the things he'd done. He was, if she were also honest, in some ways no different than her. Not that she'd admit it aloud ever. She had her dignity. Still...

He had opened up more about his past, about Maggie. She'd made a snide remark about Maggie making Enzo a better person, but she hadn't expected his response, that Maggie reminded him he was always a good person to begin with. Whatever the Augustines had done to him had tarnished that person, though, that much was true, and it seemed no one was more bitter about it than Enzo. It wasn't exactly comfortable to have her perceptions of him shift, it was those perceptions that kept her safe, kept the walls up. It made their strange camaraderie on this trip even more strange, but then, any progress of common ground between them was probably now regressed that she had snapped his neck and made a run for it with Tom. She _should_  have just killed Tom, quick and clean, but she couldn't. He looked too much like her friend, and she wasn't that great of a soldier despite Enzo's "pep talk". 

Did it make her unloyal to Stefan? Thinking about it would drive her mad and maybe she wasn't the right person for this job. This was more the kind of thing to send Damon to handle, except Damon had his own problems right now. Enzo could have likely gone alone without her too, but, she volunteered to save one of her best friends because Caroline followed through, at least, until now. Tom Avery was just _too_ damn nice. Why couldn't he have been a awful person like Silas? 

They walked towards her car, like a home stretch after a long, brutal game, and she didn't know how to make this work out in the end to save everyone, Stefan and Tom, but something could work out, right? Her and her friends had pulled off the impossible before, though, at what price this time? She couldn't take more sounds over the phone of Stefan's brain getting fried by the Travelers. He'd been through enough as it were, those months in the safe alone. She'd find a way to fix this wall, it's what she did. She was a fixer. She'd take control.

Unfortunately, she couldn't control everything, least of all Enzo appearing in a blur and snapping Tom's neck. Just like that. Tom had just smiled at her barely a moment before, now he was a corpse, blink of an eye, mission done. It was surprising how quick the rage filled her. It wasn't fair, none of this, Tom was a good person who didn't deserve to die just for the bad luck of his supernatural birth. Stefan shouldn't be at the mercy of the Travelers. She shouldn't be standing before the body of a man who looks like her best male friend, shouldn't have had to watch him die, or had to even make a choice herself whether to kill him or not. Her anger directed at Enzo, of course. The one who made the choice and just did it, no preamble. She knew, really, why he did it. Because she couldn't, and he could, and he got the job done and spared her having to do it. But it was easy to be angry rather than grateful, and easier to hide behind black and white morals than admit that they were all steeped more gray than she cared to really admit.

Either way, it was a long drive back to Mystic Falls.  


End file.
